Blood and Bone brought something to mind—a character from The Boondocks who was terrified of going to jail and experiencing a particularly unpleasant assault. It's an action film where whether someone succeeds or fails, wins or loses, hinges on their ability to dodge a certain kind of humiliation. Right away, writer Michael Andrews and director Ben Ramsey put the hero, Isaiah Bone (played by Michael Jai White), in a precarious situation. In the prison bathroom, he’s ambushed by inmates with questionable intentions. "Bone," of course, is a not-so-subtle reference to a male body part (Isaiah is also the name of an Israelite prophet from the 8th century BC, though I'm not sure that's meant to be symbolic), so it’s clear the hero is very masculine and won’t allow anyone to dominate him. Bone deals with these would-be attackers in a way typical of Michael Jai White’s action roles, and I’d guess this happened right before his parole hearing because he’s a free man by the time the opening credits appear. The scene's main purpose seems to be establishing that the protagonist is extremely heterosexual. Bone then goes to Los Angeles, where underground fighting rings operate. One of the fighters happens to be gay and even wins his match, but this isn’t presented as some kind of victory for representation; the character, called Mommie Dearest (Ernest 'The Cat' Miller), is introduced as "the homicidal homosexual, the crazy savage, the fear-inspiring queer [and] the battle-butt bandit," and fights wearing a wig with curlers. Luckily, he disappears from the story after that. Bone makes an agreement with street promoter Pinball (Dante Basco) to get into the fight scene. That same night, Bone meets mob boss James (Eamonn Walker). Over several nights, Bone builds a reputation in the underground fighting world, defeating every opponent and earning thousands of dollars for himself and Pinball—though one fighter refuses to pay, shoving the money down his pants, seemingly believing that this is where Bone will draw the line; unfortunately for him, greed overcomes prejudice. To put it simply, James wants Bone to fight for him, Bone says no, James forces him by threatening someone else, Bone agrees while planning to double-cross James, and so on. There’s other stuff happening, but the climax is the best part of the movie because it features Julian Sands and a Final Battle between Bone and a Badass in a Nice Suit (the fight itself has a rather clever resolution). When everything's over, James is arrested and sent to the same prison shown at the beginning, where he’s attacked in the showers and assaulted with a makeshift knife—a fate that James, whom Bone has figuratively stripped of his power (even cutting off his hand with a sword, which very obviously reinforces the idea of castration), lacks both the physical strength and moral character to avoid. Perhaps they should have just called this Don’t Drop the Soap: The Movie.

Source on TMDB